


Faith

by rebecca_selene



Category: Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
Genre: Aging, F/F, Immortality, Mortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-11
Updated: 2011-11-11
Packaged: 2017-10-25 23:09:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/275873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebecca_selene/pseuds/rebecca_selene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some bonds – like that between a unicorn and a woman – are too strong for mere mortality to break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faith

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2011 [](http://dogged_by_muses.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://dogged_by_muses.livejournal.com/)**dogged_by_muses** Fragments of Sappho Challenge prompt #31:  
>  but if you love us  
> choose a younger bed  
> for I cannot bear  
> to live with you when I am the older one  
> AND for my [hc_bingo](http://community.livejournal.com/hc_bingo/) card prompt “abandonment issues”  
>  **Beta:** [](http://rambo_cupcakes.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://rambo_cupcakes.livejournal.com/)**rambo_cupcakes**

Schmendrick once told Molly to never run from an immortal because it attracts their attention, but she couldn’t help it. The castle’s rooms and halls stood empty and dark, and every day Molly found enough excuses in them to keep her away from the main part of the castle – and those who lived in it. Her fears always followed her, though, and, eventually, just as Schmendrick had predicted, so did the Lady Amalthea.

“Why do you avoid me every day?” Amalthea asked in that wispy voice that always soothed a secret place deep in Molly’s heart. Molly pretended not to hear her over the wind rushing across the balcony and the sound of her beating the dust from the moth-bitten rug of a long-uninhabited room.

“Molly Grue, why do you avoid me every day?” Amalthea repeated. This time, Molly felt a gentle hand on her arm, effectively stopping her mid-stroke.

“I do no such thing.” The protest passed her lips before she could even think the words. She turned to Amalthea and gave her best smile. As always when she looked upon the pale woman, broken dreams and empty hopes assailed the forefront of her mind, but, most of all, so did hope and love and all those emotions Molly had long thought she’d forgotten how to feel.

Amalthea did not return the smile, her expression betraying her disbelief of Molly’s words. “Have I changed so much that you no longer want me?” Her voice grew sharp at the end, and she backed away a step, her head and eyes darting side to side like a spooked mare.

“Never!” Molly cried, reflexively reaching out towards her lady. “Unicorn or human, you are still the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”

Amalthea shook her head. “No,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “What you see is not me. This body is young, but I am not. I…I do not know what to do.” She wrapped her arms around her slim body and looked out towards the sea.

Molly’s heart constricted. “My lady, Schmendrick will undo his enchantment. You will be yourself again, and I…I will be on my way.”

Before Molly could react, Amalthea drew a sharp breath and crumpled to the ground. “My lady!” Molly rushed to her side and took the shaking body in her arms. On Molly’s neck both her tears and Amalthea’s soon mingled together. The sounds of a unicorn’s soul in distress tore through her mind. “My lady, you must have faith!”

“I have only this body and this mortal life,” Amalthea said, “and then I will be no more.”

“But you have Lir,” Molly said. The words stuck in her throat, for, as she pushed Amalthea away from herself and towards the prince, she pushed her dreams and her own faith away as well. But the words came anyway. “You have Lir’s love and loyalty. Even if you do not become the unicorn again, it is not such a bad life.”

Still clinging to the woman’s arms, Amalthea turned her face up to Molly’s. “And if you had found me before, when you were young and innocent, would you have wished for this life then?”

Tears ran anew down Molly’s cheeks. “To be loved by a prince? To have evil beasts felled and wondrous deeds done in my honor? Yes, it is the dream any young woman would ask for, myself included.”

Amalthea remained silent for a moment, searching Molly’s face with her bottomless sight. “Then it is not so bad, to live the dreams of innocence.”

Molly laughed then. Her shoulders eased; if Amalthea could not be immortal, at least she could find some measure of happiness. Molly stroked Amalthea’s white hair once before loosening her grip and attempting to stand. “You will be all right, my lady. You will not even notice when I am gone.”

Amalthea stopped her, using a strength the older woman did not know such a frail body could possess. “You believed in me even when I never came.” Amalthea placed a hand on Molly’s cheek, and the woman shivered from its coldness. “I would not forget you now, nor have you leave.”

“My lady…” Molly began.

“Say you’ll stay.” Amalthea grasped Molly’s clothing, twisting the rough fabric in her tiny fists.

Molly shook her head. “If I do, you will watch me grow old. Older than I am now. I will age gracelessly, and you will only think of your own fate. I must leave you with Lir.”

“Lir only sees me as a human,” Amalthea said. “He only knows this…this shell, which will not for long hold the beauty he writes poetry for. But you…” She paused, her hand again caressing Molly’s wet cheek. “You are warmth and faith. When you look at me, you know my true form. I can see it in your eyes. Please; stay. Remind me of who I am, no matter how many days I am not it. No matter how many days I might forget, please let me look in your eyes and remember.”

Molly wept. Her palm covered Amalthea’s against her cheek, and she could not hold back her sobs. Finally, she said, “Of course, my lady. Anything for you.”

Schmendrick had spoken true. Immortals always noticed those who ran from them.


End file.
